SAN DIEGO — A federal judge ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to the Trump administration’s practice of forcibly separating asylum-seeking parents and young children can proceed.

The Trump administration argued that these asylum-seeking families had no constitutional right to remain together. The court squarely rejected that position stating that “Such conduct, if true, as it is assumed to be on the present motion, is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency.”

Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, had this reaction:

“In the most forceful language, the court rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the Constitution permits it to engage in the inhumane practice of tearing little children away from their parents.”

The motion for the nationwide preliminary injunction and class certification is pending.